Davis recall not as titanic as it seemed then

Ten years ago this month, it was big news. A large majority of California voters approved the yanking of Gov. Gray Davis. Davis was only the second governor in U.S. history to suffer the indignity of being recalled.

The recall was sexy. In one poll, 99 percent of state residents said they were following news of it. It made the New Yorker and the National Enquirer, Oprah and Howard Stern. Most elections offer voters a choice of a half-dozen dull candidates. The recall offered 135 choices, including a porn star, actor Gary Coleman and a sumo wrestler.

The recall was probably the greatest force for civic engagement I've ever seen in California. While most elections run for years, the recall campaign was just 60 days, the length of a great summer fling. Whether you were in San Diego or in Redding, people were having the same conversations, all about you-know-what.

Critics of the recall said it was a crazy idea, a partisan Republican power grab, a perversion of America's tradition of representative government. Supporters said it was the epitome of popular revolt and the first step toward the remaking of California. Love it or hate it, most everyone agreed – the recall was titanic in impact.

No one thinks that today. Ten years later, the recall seems forgotten, overshadowed by countless other historical events, including a worldwide financial crisis. Politicians and pundits who once hyped it will now tell you that it was overhyped. The same people who ran California 10 years ago are running things today.

But the recall did have some lasting effects: a small but durable movement for political reform in the state, some progressive environmental policies put in place by Davis' replacement, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, and the Huffington Post, fueled in part by the notoriety Arianna Huffington gained as a recall candidate.

Among the recall's darker legacies has been a hardening of the mindset that produced it. Californians maintain a deep contempt for politicians and politics, combined with a deep faith in elections as the way to change things. These impulses are in conflict.

We have yet to realize that real change requires a different mindset. If California wants to create healthy communities and connections among its diverse and far-flung residents, it needs a new story for itself. This can't be done in one big temporary campaign. It takes years, even decades, for large groups of people to coalesce around shared narratives. And you need a common memory – a memory that media and civic institutions must do more to nurture. That way, Californians won't casually forget the results of their momentous decisions, like removing a governor from office.